Philo of Alexandria - Books and Journals

critical studies 1997 53
examples of Hellenistic and Hellenistic-Jewish theology: verbal inspiration, as
Philo among others represents it; the threefold office of king, prophet and priest;
and above all the doctrine of the Logos, in which Siegert sees a preparation of
the Christian message. (DZ)
9775. D.Sills,‘StrangeBedfellows:PoliticsandNarrativeinPhilo,’
in S. D. Breslauer (ed.), The Seductiveness of Jewish Myth; Challenge or
Response? (Albany 1997) 171–190.
The question posed by this article is how we can understand the various
ways in which Philo portrays the figure of Joseph. In Ios. Philo tells Joseph’s life
as the life of a statesman. According to Philo there are three prerequisites for
a statesman: shepherd-craft, household management, and self-control. Joseph
possesses all three prerequisites. In Somn. 2 Philo deals with Joseph in quite
a different way, and Sills discusses briefly scholarly solutions for the problem
of this divergence. She suggests that Philo is especially interested in Joseph as
statesman and politician. For this reason she draws attention to the historical
treatise Flacc. in which Philo describes Flaccus’ fall from power, exile, and death.
Sills argues that Philo deals with the same theme in Flacc., Ios., and Somn. 2,
namely the nature of political leadership. Flaccus is an example of a person who
did not succeed as political leader, missing the three prerequisites Joseph did
possess. (ACG)
9776. M. Simonetti, ‘Teologia e cristologia dell’Egitto cristiano,’ in A.
Campliani (ed.), L’egitto cristiano aspetti e problemi in età tardo-antica,
Studia Ephemeridis Augustinianum 56 (Rome 1997) 11–38, esp. 11–15.
From the 2nd to the 6th century Alexandria played a fundamental role in
the history of Christian theology along a line represented by Philo, Valentinus,
Clement and Origen. What is the common element of these authors? The reply is:
Platonism, which in this religious environment is first secured by Philo. The aim
of these pages is above all to demonstrate how fundamental Stoic elements—
such as the Logos and also the Pneuma—found a complete integration in the
forma mentis of Platonism, and that for this reason the thought of Philo as well as
that of Valentinus, Clement and Origen should be considered Platonist, having
as its foundation a dualistic conception of reality (and not monistic as in the case
of Stoicism), combined with a transcendent conception of God. (RR)
9777.T.C.Skeat,‘TheOldestManuscriptoftheFourGospels?,’New
Testament Studies 43 (1997) 1–34, esp. 24–26.
As part of a detailed investigation of a number of early New Testament papyri,
the author has to discuss their provenance, namely the famous Philo papyrus
codex discovered in Coptos in 1889. Skeat disagrees with earlier scholars that the
codex may have come from Caesarea. It was most likely produced in Alexandria,
perhaps in the scriptorium of Pantaenus. (DTR)